


Among Fallen Leaves

by Mareel



Category: Star Trek: Enterprise
Genre: Autumn, Established Relationship, Future Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-25
Updated: 2013-09-25
Packaged: 2017-12-27 14:36:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/980065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mareel/pseuds/Mareel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>And you wait.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Among Fallen Leaves

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place approximately seventeen years after the launch of _Enterprise_ , while Jonathan is an admiral in Starfleet. He and Malcolm have a long-established relationship. This is Jonathan's voice. I had images from Rilke's poem "[Herbsttag](http://www.thebeckoning.com/poetry/rilke/rilke4.html)" (Autumn Day) in my head as I wrote this.

 

I’ve been restless all day. 

I hadn’t expected that it would be so deeply autumn. Living aboard a starship for years at a time disconnects you from the turning of the seasons, even those minimal season changes I knew from growing up in California. Here in Vermont, I don’t even have to look up at the trees to know it… the late afternoon light filtering through the branches is colored by their scarlets and golds. More leaves crunch beneath my feet as I walk the wooded pathway near our cabin, 

Alone. Waiting. 

The waiting is the worst part. I should be used to it by now, but that seems never to happen. 

How many times did I pace across the bridge or from my quarters to the mess hall in the small hours on _Enterprise_? There were many reasons for it, but a lot of those reasons were Malcolm. 

All too often, I knew he was the best – or the only – man for an assignment. Neither of us would have wanted our relationship to affect that. So he would go out to defuse mines, or infiltrate a potential rebel faction on some world we didn’t have enough information about. All we had to go on were my instincts, and his, and perhaps some direct orders from Starfleet. 

I’m the one giving those orders from Starfleet now. And I’m still sending Malcolm off into a dangerous unknown situation more often than I’d like. And he would have it no other way. 

But I never promised him not to worry and pace… and wait. It could be winter here before he returns this time. He loves the autumn and will miss this one. There’s still a bit of light low in the sky. I walk the leaf-strewn path once more... missing him.

 


End file.
